An organist–composer turns to the cello with mixed results
The Strad Issue: August 2025
Description: An organist–composer turns to the cello with mixed results
Musicians: Gwendeline Lumaret (cello) Naji Hakim (piano)
Works: Hakim: Arabesque and Variations; Missa cum jubilo; Prélude et habanera; Montmartre; Levantine Variations
Catalogue number: MÉTIER MEX77130
Beirut-born French musician Naji Hakim is perhaps best known as an organist and master improviser: he held important positions at Paris’s Sacré-Coeur and Sainte-Trinité. He has long composed more widely, but it was as recently as 2020 that he turned his attention to the cello, resulting in the clutch of works collected together on this enjoyable if slightly underwhelming release.
The playing of French cellist Gwendeline Lumaret – who’s on her own until the disc’s final piece – is muscular and assertive, with a gloriously clipped buoyancy that she uses to persuasive effect in Hakim’s sprightly, dancing lines, and an almost reedy intensity to her arching melodies. She brings enormous character to the contrasting idioms Hakim showcases in his 2021 Arabesque and Variations, based on a popular Egyptian song, and she’s suitably dusky and veiled in the low-register melodies of the 2023 Montmartre.
As pianist in the concluding Levantine Variations – based on a Syrian song – Hakim brings winning authenticity and agility, but less of the fizz and vigour that would bring the music more vividly alive. The disc’s succession of short movements – caught in a rich, resonant recording – each exploring an individual sound world but without much variation or contrast, becomes somewhat wearing across its hour-long duration.
DAVID KETTLE
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